Tushuguan (Library) Rec. Center

Since I have been in class or preparing for classes, I have not done all that much sightseeing while in Beijing. The main thing I have done is eat at several really nice restaurants and driven around the city at night. N,ow that the weather has turned nice, I have walked around the area I am staying at a lot and sometimes the ordinary things in life can be the most interesting and rewarding.

My favorite local place to go to is the library across the street. I am sure the designer of the library did not intend this but the patio and fountain area in front of the library has turned into a local recreation park. The fountain is not turned on, so people use it to rollerblade and upper patio has people doing Thia Chi. sitting and talking, exercising, even taking their bird to, for fresh air.

Here are a few pictures I took on my walk this morning.

Beijing at Night

Lotus the person who owns our apartment took Leanna and I to dinner and to see Beijing the other evening(8/11/08). So she drove us to Tenemen Square, when she tried to pull into some drive she was stopped by an attendant. So we drove down the road and after a while I realize we were only going about 10 or so km/hr.

This kind of concerned Leanna and I since we were on a main highway where other vehicles were zooming by. So Leanna asked Lotus if she had fallen asleep. To which Lotus replied she had only slowed down to wait for it to get dark, sho she could show us the light at night. This is China (see previous posting on driving in China) so we just sat back and tried to relax.

Lotus was right, the city completely transforms itself when it gets dark. The city lights up buildings, bridges, and attractions with a combination of spotlights, florescent lights and string lights. For the most part the lights are used to accent the area, not to make it look like Las Vegas, so it is not gaudy and very nice.

Some parts of Beijing are interesting during the day. Like the building across the street from our classroom which has grass growing on the roof to help insulate the roof or the CCTV building. There are a lot of building that are somewhat mundane during the day but when the lights are added at night come alive. Then of course there are a few that are interesting during the day and are just as or even more interesting at night. Unfortunately my camera batteries were getting low when it got dark so I don't have many night photos.

The Big O Party

I of course did not have tickets for the the Olympic opening ceremonies, but I did have the next best thing a view from the 17th floor of the fireworks, with some new friends. One of the other students in TEFL course has an apartment that is close to the Olympic stadium. So he invited us over to watch the ceremonies on TV have pizza and watch the fireworks from his balconies.

Seven from the TEFL course showed up and Lenna my apartment mate and I invited Lotus whose apartment we are staying in. Watching the ceremonies was fun and we were sitting was a lot cooler than everyone in the stadium. During the ceremonies they would shoot off some fireworks and we would all rush over to the balcony only to realize it was just a teaser. My favorite part of the ceremonies was the mass Thai Chi segment. I have no idea how many people were in it but it was part meditation, martial arts movie scene and Busby Berkly spectacular rolled into one. The march of the athletes was interesting but hey need to figure out how to speed it up. You can only watch people walking around a track for so long.

The fireworks was not as long as I expected but they were good. They were the most spread out display that I have every seen. The line of fireworks must have stretched one or two kilometers. Although I think I missed the most interesting part of the display I think the did the olympic rings that would have been visible from the inside the stadium, but all I could see was a thin line of light.

When the ceremonies finished hit the street to find a taxi, only find out there were no taxi's available. The after 20 minutes of waiting we found out our route was blocked so the foreign motorcades could use the main highway. We had to circle almost all of Beijing before we got home between 2 and 3 am.

There are 4 people sharing one internet plug, so I am writing at 7 in the morning. Beijing is interesting there is not much traffic to speak of because car are restricted due to the Olympics. The air is relatively clear also due Beijing restricting traffic and manufacturing before to the Olympics. There are also people wandering around the city with Olympic volunteer shirts trying to help visitors. I expected to see a lot of westerners here but I haven't seen many out side of the airport and and Carrefours (a French based department store), so I seem to be some what of a curiosity.

It is also hot here but a less humid than Shanghai. The landlord Lotus took us to the the "Birds Nest", which is what they call the Olympic stadium. But we couldn't get close to it because they have a big fence all around it and it was so hot we decide not to continue on to see the swimming pool. But we did see the pool from the bus. Which was just as good since we can't get close to anything related to the Olympics anyway.

Then we went shopping for things we need at the apartment. So was kind of a long day, so when I got back I was tired. It was nice to be able to get around Beijing without too much problems but as everyone keeps reminding me, I am not seeing the real Beijing.

Good Day After All

This past weekend was kind of a let down. After having dinner with friends during the week and getting used to a new environment. I came down with a little bug, that combined with the heat and humidity, here in Shanghai, kind of put me in a bad mood. The highs have been between 95 and 97 but even worse the lows have around 87, still kind of hot. The humidity has also been high above 70%. So Saturday night when I finally ventured out in the evening I was grumpy.

But that was when things changed. I went over to Renmin Park and as I approached, I heard Brahms lullaby being played on wood wind over by the big fountain. So I went over there. When I got there I saw kind of a mini festival going on. The fountain was lit up and was full of kids in the water and everyones else talking with each other and watching the water. It was also cooler here due to a breeze from the ocean blowing across the water.

It was like a small festival; people were blowing bubbles for children to chase, and friends talking and relaxing with each othere. One group was launching a propeller toy that lit up when it flew. There was even someone flying a kite in the dark. It changed my mood completely.

While I leaned against a wall watching this little festival, a girl came up to me wanting to try her English out. For once I didn't feel like someone was trying to scam me and her parent who were near by seem to be happy that the Mei Gou Rin was being nice to their child. So I talked with her. Lucy was going into 7th grade and her pronunciation was good. She like school and discovery was her favorite class. Just as we began to run out of things to talk about the music and fountain abruptly ended. So I excused myself and finished my walk around the park feeling a lot better than when I started.

Here are some random photos of dinners.

Back In China

My flight was good, there was no major snags and I landed safe back in China. So far the only person I have seen is Dong Yan, she helped book my before I came, we got something to eat and went for a run yesterday, she is a great friend. I will get together with several people this Thursday. I am looking forward to that. There are many conflicts going on with me though. It is great to be back here but it doesn't feel as good this time this time though. It is hot and muggy here. Plus even more important to me I am really happy to see my friends in China, but now I miss everyone in St Louis. Of course in a year I will back in St Louis missing my friends in China. I guess I am never satisfied.

I am so proud of myself, I met some professors on the flight and ended up helping them catch the Maglev train, the subway and a taxi. I felt like a real world traveler. At least until I started walking to my hotel and had to get a map out to find the street my hotel was on. It was very embarrassing when I realized I was standing right across the street from the street I was looking for. Although I don't feel too bad since I had asked some people and they didn't know where the street was either.

I am hoping to post once or twice a week, so stay tuned.

New China Adventure

Stay turned for my next China adventure. I will be teaching English at Jiangsu Institute of Economic & Trade Technology. Tentative itinerary to follow.